warm against my face. I noticed in passing that the pain in my head had vanished, and in its place I felt a pleasant lightness.
'Very well,' I said quiedy, 'that much is setded, then. You didn't kill Dionysius. Who did, I wonder?'
'Who do you think?' said Iaia. 'The same man who killed Lucius Licinius. Crassus!'
'But for what reason?'
'I can't say, but now I think it is time for you to tell me what you know, Gordianus. For example, yesterday you sent the slave Apollonius diving off the pier below Gelina's house. I understand you made some startling discoveries.'
'Who told you? Meto?'
'Perhaps.'
'No secrets, Iaia!'
'Very well, then, yes. Meto told me. I wonder if we came to the same conclusion, Gordianus.'
'That Lucius was trading arms to the rebel slaves in return for plundered silver and jewels?'
'Exactly. I think Dionysius may have also suspected some such scandal; that was why he hesitated to reveal Alexandros's hiding place, because he knew that there was a greater secret to uncover. Meto also told me that you discovered certain documents in Dionysius's room — incriminating documents regarding Lucius's criminal schemes.'
'Perhaps. Crassus himself couldn't fully decipher them.'
'Oh, couldn't he?'
A faint tracing of pain flickered through my skull. 'Iaia, do you seriously suggest
She shrugged. 'Why not speak the unspeakable? Yes, Crassus himself must have been involved in the enterprise!'
'Crassus, smuggling arms to Spartacus? Impossible!'
'No, quite disgustingly possible, for a man as vain and greedy as Marcus Crassus. So greedy that he couldn't resist the opportunity to reap a huge profit by dealing with Spartacus — surreptitiously, of course, using poor, frightened Lucius as his go-between. And so vain that he thought it would ultimately make no difference to his cause when he gains the command against the slaves. He thinks himself such a brilliant strategist that it won't matter that he has armed his own enemy with Roman steel.'
'Then you say he poisoned Dionysius because the philosopher was close to exposing him?'
'Perhaps. More likely Dionysius had begun to insinuate blackmail, subtle blackmail, merely asking for a handsome stipend and a place in Crassus's retinue. But men like Crassus will not put up with subordinates who hold a secret over them; Dionysius was too stupid to see that there was no profit in the knowledge he was seeking to exploit. He should have kept his secrets to himself; then he might have lived.'
'But why did Crassus kill Lucius?'
Iaia looked down at her feet, where the sunlight had crept close enough to warm her toes. 'Who knows? Crassus came that night in secret to discuss their secret affairs. Perhaps Lucius had begun to balk at the tasks to which Crassus set him and threatened to expose them both; it would be like Lucius to panic. Perhaps Crassus had discovered that Lucius was cheating him. For whatever reason, Crassus struck him with the statue and killed him, then saw a way to turn even that moment of madness to his advantage, by making it look as if a follower of Spartacus had committed the crime.'
I stared out at the unending progression of waves that proceeded from the horizon. I shook my head. 'Such supreme hypocrisy — it's almost too monstrous to be believed. But why, then, did Crassus send for me?'
'Because Gelina and Mummius insisted. He could hardly refuse to allow an honest investigation of his cousin's death.'
'And how did Dionysius come to have the documents?'
'That we can't be sure of. The only thing we know for certain is that we shall never have an explanation from Dionysius's lips.'
I thought of Crassus's dark moods, his unspoken doubts, his long nights of searching through the documents in Lucius's library. If all was as Iaia had concluded, then Crassus was killer, eulogist, judge, and avenger combined, beyond the power of any of us to punish.
'I see you are not entirely satisfied,' Iaia said.
'Satisfied? I am most dissatisfied. What a waste, what futility, to have put myself in such danger, and not only myself — Eco! All for a bag of silver. Crassus solves all his problems with silver — and why not, when men like me will settle for mere coins. He might as well have sent me the money and allowed me to stay in Rome, instead of dragging me here to take part in his hideous deception-'
'I meant,' said Iaia, 'that you might not be satisfied with my explanation of events. There are certain other circumstances of which you know nothing, which might grant you a little more insight into the workings of Crassus's mind. These matters are so delicate, so personal that I hesitate even now to discuss them with you. But I think Gelina would understand. You know that she and Lucius were childless.'
'Yes.'
'And yet Gelina very much wanted a child. She thought the problem might lie with her, and she sought my help; I did what I could with my knowledge of medicines, but to no avail. I began to think the problem rested with Lucius. I brewed remedies which Gelina administered to him in secret, but that was of no use, either. Instead, Priapus eventually withdrew his favour from Lucius entirely. He became crippled in his sex — powerless, just as he was powerless to control his own life and destiny. Imagine being Crassus's creature, compelled to fawn over his greatness, reduced to tawdry schemes of escaping his domination — which Crassus would never allow, because it gave him a perverse pleasure to keep his cousin pressed beneath his foot.
'And yet Gelina still wanted a baby. She wouldn't be denied. You've seen her; you know that she could hardly be called demanding or domineering. In many ways she's more retiring and acquiescent than befits a woman of her station. But in this one thing she would have her way. And so, against all my advice but with the full knowledge of her husband, she asked Crassus to give her a child.'
'When was this?'
'During Crassus's last visit, in the spring.' 'Why did Lucius allow it?'
'Don't many husbands quiedy allow themselves to be cuckolded, because to protest would only aggravate their humiliation and shame? Beyond that, Lucius had a perverse penchant for making choices that would harm him. And Gelina appealed to his family pride — Crassus would at least give them an heir with the blood of a Licinius.
'But no child resulted. The only result was the coolness that developed between Lucius and Gelina. She had done exactly the wrong thing, of course. Had she approached any man but Crassus, Lucius might have kept a shred of dignity. But for his all-powerful cousin to be invited into his wife's bed — for Crassus to be asked to bring a child into the household he already dominated — these humiliations preyed on his soul.
'You see, then, that there was more than financial deception and fraud to spark a murder between the two cousins. Crassus can be quite cold and brutal; Lucius's shame pricked at him like a crown of thorns. Who knows what whispered words passed between them that night in the library? Before it was over, one of them was dead.'
I looked heavenward. 'And now a whole household of slaves will die. Roman justice!'
'No!' Alexandros jumped to his feet. 'There must be something we can do.'
'Nothing,' whispered Olympias, reaching for his arm and grasping at thin air when he drew away.
'Perhaps…' I squinted at the edge of sunlight that blazed along the scalloped tile roof. Time was fleeting. The games might already have begun. 'If I could confront Crassus directly, with Gelina as witness. If Alexandros could see him and identify him for certain-'
'No!' Olympias interposed herself between us. 'Alexandros cannot leave Cumae.'
'If only we had the cloak — the bloodstained cloak from which Crassus tore his seal before he discarded it along the road! If only I hadn't lost it to the assassins last night. The assassins… oh, Eco!'
And then the cloak appeared, wafting out of the dark shadows of the house into the bright sunshine, held aloft by the outstretched arms of Eco himself, who smiled and blinked the sleep from his eyes.
